


California On Your Ass

by SardonicShipper



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, Femslash, Gen, Smoking, Women of Supernatural, this is gen's ruby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-27
Updated: 2014-12-27
Packaged: 2018-03-03 20:11:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2886032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SardonicShipper/pseuds/SardonicShipper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>High school AU circa 1980 with Jo and Ruby.</p>
            </blockquote>





	California On Your Ass

"It’s like somebody stamped California on your ass."

Jo had gotten used to hearing that every time she wore her favorite shorts and knee socks, roller skates resting in a brown paper bag nearby. She’d learned to ignore it, just smile politely, because she knew that reaction annoyed Ruby more than anything. 

"C’mon, blondie, say SOMETHING."

Yep.

Ruby flipped her off, going back to her ham and cheese, doing her best to avoid getting her long, dark hair in the soggy sandwich.

Most people wouldn’t believe it, but Ruby was Jo’s closest friend. There was Charlie, and Dean, and Jake, and Lily, but Ruby…Ruby was special.

After Jo’s dad died, she and her mother had moved to Michigan to be close to family. The popular girls had taken her in immediately, and some of them were really nice, but she’d never been like them. She’d just nod, laugh at the right times, like she did with most boys, and try not to look bored. Eventually they’d just stopped hanging around her. She couldn’t blame them. 

One day, during a fire drill, she’d looked over at some of the other kids, the ones who reminded her of Grease, but who’d probably lamp her if she ever said that to them. She didn’t talk to them very often. She wasn’t with them…or with anyone. It just didn’t make sense to try. 

But when the girl with the beat up leather jacket had stopped the perfect “smoke while looking cool” pose long enough to sneak a glimpse Jo’s way, Jo had felt something. Something she’d felt more than once in the last few years. Something she’d hoped she’d left behind in California, since her grandmother had always said California was full of heathens. 

"Hear me, blondie? It’s the 80s. 1-9-8-0. Farrah stopped doing those posters a long time ago, y’know."

Jo rolled her eyes. If Ruby wanted a response, she’d get one.

"You’re one to talk…Leather Tuscadero."

Ruby just about choked on her sandwich.

Well it didn’t have to be a good one.

Ruby wiped her mouth, stopping to flash Jo one of her rare, genuinely happy smiles, the ones where suddenly everything wasn’t horrible and confusing and screwed up. 

Jo wasn’t sure if Ruby had somehow just known, if there was some sort of newsletter going around she wasn’t aware of, but Ruby knew. From the first time Ruby had sat next to her at lunch, the first time those private jokes became their own language, there’d been this understanding, this…easiness. 

They’d never talked about it. Jo had barely even tried to think about what she was, let alone talk about it with anyone else.  
And then one day, right before classes started, Ruby had kissed her. Pulled her into a stall and kissed her, a kiss that was hungry and scared, those normally confident eyes more full of fear than Jo had ever seen them. 

Ruby hadn’t gone near her for weeks after that. Jo had just assumed she’d done something wrong, something to alienate Ruby, that she’d been the freak, like she always was.

It had taken Charlie “accidentally” inviting them both to Biggerson’s and then jetting on them, eyes wide as saucers as she’d tripped out the side entrance, for Ruby and Jo to really talk. 

Ruby had stammered out an apology, or the closest Ruby could ever come to an apology. She’d been defensive, unable to look Jo in the eye. 

Jo had said, fast and stumbling before the words sealed inside her forever, “I…I wanted to kiss you, Ruby. I liked it.”

Ruby had scowled at her, waiting for the ball to drop, for everyone to run in, pointing and laughing. 

And Jo, ignoring the screaming in her head that this was crazy or wrong, had slid her hand under the table, clasped Ruby’s fingers, squeezed them. 

That was the first time that Ruby had smiled at her that way. The smile that made Jo feel like she’d finally solved the puzzle that pretty little California dolls were never supposed to have to solve in order to be happy.

A few weeks later, when they were stretched out in the back of Ruby’s friend Andy’s van, a little buzzed and just happy to be together, Ruby told Jo that she only felt happy when she was around her.

Jo had heard boys tell her that before, stroking her hair and staring into her eyes just like Ruby had been that day, but this wasn’t the same. This was something she felt too. It meant something. It wasn’t something she was supposed to do. It was what she wanted to do. What made her happy.

Jo would have felt so happy if she thought any of this was going to last.

She and Ruby were graduating in a few months. Mom was on her to find a good college, to do her dad proud, do herself proud. She knew Ruby was staying around here, probably working at John’s garage.

Jo didn’t really want to stay here, but she didn’t want to go either. She didn’t care about college. She didn’t really know what she wanted. All she knew was she wanted to be with Ruby. And she knew Ruby thought it wasn’t even a choice - that Jo would be gone by late summer and just stop in for visits with Mom, ignoring Ruby like some bad memory.

That wasn’t true. It just wasn’t true. But if Jo said it out loud, she’d lose everything. Mom wouldn’t understand…nobody would understand. She’d have to give up everything. And she didn’t even know if Ruby would do the same for her. She thought Ruby would, but…

"Still need a lift?" 

Dean winked at her, and Ruby, good-naturedly, making that ch-ch sound that Ruby said made her want to stab him.  
Ruby and Dean good-naturedly bickered on the way to the rink while Jo tried not to drown in her own thoughts. 

When they got there, Ruby split. Jo assumed she was going to the arcade, or for another smoke. 

So, after Jo went to put her skates on, she was surprised to see Ruby standing in front of her, dangling a pair of skates and some pads.

"Willing to teach me?" Ruby asked, eyes almost as scared as they’d been day she’d pulled Jo in that bathroom stall.

Jo grinned, ear-to-ear.

"Yeah. I think I can do that."

When they got on the rink and she clasped Ruby’s hand, she knew, for the first time, that she’d never, ever let go.


End file.
